The Cubs "hosted a media preview on Thursday" for their new Spring Training facility in Mesa, which is set to open next spring, according to Jim Walsh of the ARIZONA REPUBLIC. Cubs GM/Spring Training Business Operations Justin Piper said that the new facility includes a 15,000-seat ballpark, with "light towers similar to those at the iconic Wrigley Field in Chicago, a large center-field berm capable of seating about 4,000 fans and a large left-field party deck with a bird’s-eye view of the ballpark below." The ballpark is "designed to maximize shade, with about half the seats blocked from March’s sometimes sizzling rays by a cantilever roof patterned after Wrigley Field." The facility also boasts a 70,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art clubhouse that is "more than double the size" of the Cubs' former clubhouse at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa. The $84M project is "expected to be completed by the end of" '13. Piper: "It really is a world-class facility with modern training facilities and hydrotherapy. It really is going to be a year-round hub for the Cubs" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 10/11).
